


Gone, but not forgotten: Hisagi

by rilina



Series: Gone, but not forgotten [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-21
Updated: 2008-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 06:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rilina/pseuds/rilina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not everyone in Soul Society has forgotten the Vizards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone, but not forgotten: Hisagi

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the Pendulum arc.

Shuuhei's never found out what happened to the ninth division captain who made such an impression on him as a child. By the time Shuuhei joined the Gotei 13, Captain Muguruma was already gone, and the circumstances of that departure were off-limits to discussion. Certainly Tousen never spoke of it. Shuuhei always assumed that was a product of his captain's respect for regulations; these days he suspects there were other reasons as well.

Now, as he takes up the responsibilities that Tousen left behind, Shuuhei often pauses to wonder what exactly the division's never been told. Speculation's impossible to avoid when each day he stumbles upon more reminders of the captain he met. It's not that that Shuuhei never encountered them before--that unfamiliar stamp at the bottom of old standing orders, those scrawled notes in the margins of well-worn training manuals--but in the wake of Tousen's betrayal, they carry new meaning and significance.

Only once, however, does his curiosity get the best of him.

It's late afternoon, and he's sifting through old files in search of a timetable when Lieutenant Ise arrives to deliver reports from the eighth. In the midst of the current upheaval, she's one of the Gotei 13's few constants. Apparently it takes more than a large-scale conspiracy and the defection of three captains to ruffle her composure. The two lieutenants exchange the usual pleasantries, and having handed off her papers, she's moving to leave when Shuuhei realizes that she might have some of the answers he seeks. For though they're the same age, she was already a shinigami when he was still a brat running through in the Rukongai slums.

"Lieutenant Ise," he calls after her. "If you have a moment, could you look at something for me? I've made a strange find in the division archives." He knows if there's one thing Ise Nanao can't resist, it's inside knowledge.

She turns back at once, her face alight with anticipation, but that interest fades quickly as she scans the papers he shows her. "These are just directives regarding the daily activities of your division. A duty roster, weekly rotations, a schedule of standard shifts."

"But look at the date, and the captain's seal. Almost a century old, but these orders remain active today."

"It's not uncommon for a captain's work to outlast him, not here in Soul Society."

"But doesn't it make you wonder? Don't you ask yourself what they were like--the officers who served before you? Did you ever meet him when you were a new shinigami? Do you happen to know how he--"

"Captain Muguruma was lost in action, during a mission where several other shinigami died." Her tone's unusually severe. "It was an ordinary tragedy. And if you'll forgive me, Lieutenant Hisagi, it's the captains of the present, not the past, who will matter in the war the come." She departs without another word, leaving him to chastened and silent.

Later, he thinks it must be different for Ise. She's always served in the eighth division, and Captain Kyouraku's as much an institution in Soul Society as the Gotei 13 itself. Whereas Shuuhei's life has been shaped by three men. By Muguruma, who saved his life. By Aizen, who saved it again during that disastrous training mission that killed his best friends. And finally by Tousen, who took his trust and betrayed it.

But perhaps that doesn't really make him all that different from everyone else. He's hardly the only shinigami who was manipulated for Aizen's ends. And despite the way his life has been twisted and bent, the 69 tattoo on his cheek remains darker than any of the scars hollows have left. The decisions he's made for himself still outweigh those that have been made for him.

He returns Muguruma's orders to the archives and asks Ise to forget what he asked. Shuuhei will remember the first captain who changed his world in his own way--by looking forward instead of back.


End file.
